Before I was selected to participate in the TNT Global Experience Programme and intern for WFP in The Gambia, one of the questions I had to answer in the last qualifying interview was about the 'cultural shock' I would face and what my coping stategy would be in order to succesfully 'operate' within the new environment, apparently so much different from ours in (Western) Europe.
The first thought that went through my mind was about the need to integrate with the locals by sharing what was left from my social life, trying to get to know them more closely, finding activities which would enable me to expose myself to their day to day life and above all, mapping out those points where we would have something in common, something we share to better get to know each other and build trust. This would suppose to be the foundation of a positive experience in The Gambia.
Having been through a rather challenging and sometimes quite difficult 'immigration' experience when moving from Poland to Germany in the aftermath of Communism, I immediately knew that the perfect answer to the question of social integration was sport. Indeed, it was through sport, or more precisely basketball, that my life in Germany took its succesful turn, giving me the chance to get to know wonderful people, some of which belong to the circle of my closest friends still today.
When pondering about the cultural shock question during the qualification interview, even though I could not directly compare the case of The Gambia with 'The' Germany for very obvious reasons, I knew that sport in general and basketball in particular was the right step for some kind of integration to take place during my 6 months long experience. At the very least, it would be a unique opportunity to get to know sport as a rather different and too often overlooked 'social dimension' of life in The Gambia or for that matter Sub-Saharan Africa, a dimension which has been for far too long marginalized as an important factor in sustainable development and socio-economic progress.
So, after many weeks and in fact months of talking about all my basketball related intentions, and being already mocked by my housemate about all the 'hot air' I produced on the issue, I decided to finally put words into action and become a (first caucasian?) basketball coach in The Gambia. And with success! With the very first try of biking to the area of the national 'Independece Stadium' and checking out the situation, like through a miracle, I found a team badly in need of a coach taking basketball seriously.
For nearly six weeks now I am coaching regularly after work and during weekends 20-25 players of a youth basketball club called 'Porcupines' at the grounds of The Gambia's only real outdoor basketball 'stadium', more often than not characterized by the presence of grazing goats rather than sportsmen. So far, the exercise has not only been a way to find a welcome social distraction from work or pose an unusual social alternative to going to the beach...Indeed, it presents itself as a unique 'social integration' experience and a good psychological experiment of local culture and attitude.
But so far, what did i really learn from it?
Above all, it made me experience firsthandedly how important sport can be for development, as already advocated by the United Nations. During my time here I have already observed on several occasions that success in (any kind of) a development exercise rises and falls with the attitude and work ethic that people show towards achieving desired results, and the availability of adequate methods in actually measuring it. What else than sport is a more promising, straightforward and cost effective method in building that social capacity?
When it comes to success in achieving desired objectives as a team, basketball is in no way different from logistics and the delivery of humanitarian aid. Here too, especially the lack of values such as team work, discipline, commitment, hard work or sacrifice by the members of the team makes any individual or team based success rather illusory. Through basketball, I hope, those 25 young players will not only get an incentive to get away from the street but even more so engage with an activity that will have a positive impact on their attitude towards work, make them learn to respect themselves and further facilitate a constructive development of their social environment.
The sentence "Guys, whenever you cheat during the exercise you will not cheat on me (the coach) but primarily on yourself and your team, and it is yourself and your team which will lose out at the end of the day" has become already standard vocabulary during training, making them understand that only through their own commitment, discipline, hard work, resolve and sacrifice, they will be succesful players and a succesful team. Indeed, basketball training has become an effective capacity building exercise, worth every single minute of free time and commitment and I'm very happy to be going through it.
Now, even though we've played (and lost by a small margin) 2 games so far, I see that with every practice and every match the players get a better understanding of the process and, most importantly, of the key values that drive success in a team play.
However, at the end of the day it is not warm up shirts, nor good training, nor basketball experience, nor fancy sports equipment or anything else you can think of that is at the very base of a sportsman's success and the plethora of developmental and health related dividends sport brings with it. Instead, at the end of the day, success in basketball, like success in school, ultimately depends on the availability of nutritious food.
For me, this becomes an additional way to understand the importance of WFP's work and I learn to appreciate its positive impact even more. For top athletes like Paul Tergat, a world class marathon runner and founder of various social projects in his home country, WFP's food aid has been a life changing experience. So, why not also for a Gambian child/youth? With even more determination, let us 'fight hunger (and enable sport for development), worldwide'.
p.s. Special thanks from the manager of the Porcupines, team and myself go to TNT Express in Germany for a generous donation of 25 warm up shirts.